The Genealogy Roots Blog is for finding online genealogy databases, records and resources. The focus is on vital records (birth, marriage, divorce & death records), obituaries, census records, naturalization records, military records and ship passenger lists. The Genealogy Roots Blog is based in the USA, but online European, Canadian, and other records sources are sometimes included. Mixed in with all this you will occasionally find a fun post or genealogy news.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Online Tools For Adoptees, Genealogists and Other Missing Persons Searchers

The directory of online people searching tools listed below has recently been updated. Included are telephone and address books, public records, vital records resources, and information about Area Codes, Zip Codes and the Social Security Death Index. You might find the directory helpful for locating old friends and family members, or for adoption related searches...

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Ancestry has added a name index and digitized images for the 1851 Census of Canada to its collection of online genealogy databases. The 1851 Canada census includes the areas of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Canada East (Lower Canada, or roughly Quebec), and Canada West (Upper Canada, or roughly Ontario). Not all of this census has survived. Some of this census was actually taken in 1852.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Americans... today you are 1 of 300,000,000. The U.S. Census Bureauhas reported that the total population of the United States reached300 million at about 7:46 (EDT) this morning. The U.S. reached the 200million mark in 1967 and the 100 million mark in 1915. Presently inthe United States there is one birth every 7 seconds, one death every13 seconds, and one international migrant is added every 31 seconds.This adds one person to the U.S. population every 11 seconds. You cansee the Census Bureau's population clock at: U.S. Population Clock

Sunday, October 01, 2006

If you have any ancestors or relatives who enlisted in the US Army during World War II, you might be able to find them listed in the Army Enlistment database provided by the National Archives (NARA). The original computer files for this database were created in 1994 by the Bureau of the Census at NARA's request. The Census Bureau used their "Film Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers" (FOSDIC) system from a series of 1,586 microfilm rolls of computer punch cards. The original punch cards, which had basic information about enlistees when they entered the Army, were destroyed after being microfilmed in 1947. Unfortunately 212 microfilm rolls could not be converted to computer files because the card images were too dark. In 2002 NARA edited, merged and cleaned up these files, then later put them online. They can be searched from: Access to Archival Databases (AAD) Click on "World War II" when you get there.

click the image to see a larger view

The Army Enlistment database contains 9,200,232 total records. You will find some errors in the database due to all the changes and editing the originals went through from punch card to microfilm to computer files. Also, about 1.5 million punch cards were not readable by the FOSDIC system from the original microfilm so the database is incomplete. NARA considers the database with its 9 million entries to be a "best guess" file. Note that the database is for United States Army enlistments, including the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC or WAC), and not other branches of the service. Despite the errors and omissions this is still a great tool for finding basic information about WWII Army enlistments.